Steam-shovel dipper



A. M, GOW. STEAM SHOVEL DIFFER- APPLICATION- mzn 050.21. 1920.

Patented Jan. 3, 1922,

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STEAM SHOVEL DIPPER.

APPLICATION FILED D EC.27. 1920.

Patnted Jan.3, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- 10mm 75m??- PATENT OFFICE.

ALEXANDER M, GOW, OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA.

STEAM-SHOVEL DIPPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 3, 1922.

Application filed December 27, 1920. Serial No. 483,241.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER M. Gow, a citizen of the United States, residing at Duluth, in the county of St. Louis and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Steam-Shovel Dippers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates t a new and improved steam shovel dipp ,i', and more specifically to a dipper partic larly adapted for the delivery of its content s e ither on the pit level or upon the level of a bank well above that of the pit.

Steam shovel dippers now generally in use are substantially cubical in form, comprising a back, a front, two sides and a door, the door being hinged to the back and in closed position being at substantially right angles thereto. The door closes the lower portion of the dipper and the upper portion is open to receive the load. The front commonly carries an extension called a lip and the teeth, if any, are secured to the front.

The teeth which have been generally used are provided with long shanks extending inside the dipper approximately the full length of the front and held thereto by a series of bolts or rivets. Dippers vary as regards details of construction, but in general conform to the type described.

In removing the enormous yardage of dirt required in modern types of strip mines and in simllar operatlons, enormous revolving shovels weighing upward of 300 tons each have been evolved. These shovels carry dippers holding eight cubic yards and are capable of loading cars located upon a bank forty feet above the pit floor. A shovel dipper of the cubical type works well in these conditions, as the dipper door is approximately horizontal when the shovel is at its height due to the size and proportions of the boom and dipper stick and the relation of the dipper thereto.

At times, however, it is highly desirable that cars be loaded upon the pit floor as well as upon the bank. In such cases the cubical dipper adapted for bank use is so turned when adjacent the pit floor that its door approaches the vertical. Opening the door, therefore, fails to adequately discharge the dipper contents, since they rest upon the nearly horizontal dipper front. The discharge of the dipper contents from any height above the pit floor such as would bring the dipper door to any angle approachlng the horizontal would smash the cars due to the weight of the load and the distance of its fall. This failure to discharge is of course more pronounced in handling wet or stick material.

In view 0 this demand for a dipper which will discharge either upon the pit floor or the bank, several types of dippers have been designed. Certain types comprise constructions in which the front constitutes the door. These types, however, involve great mechanical difficulties, since the front must be of very heavy material carrying the heavy teeth, and in an eight cubic yard capacity dipper would be a casting approximately six feet wide by nine feet long and weighing two and a half to three tons.

It is an object of'the present invention to provide a new and improved steam shovel dipper adapted to fully discharge its contents through a wide range of elevations.

It is a further object to provide a dipper of this character which is simple in design and the use of which does not involve movement of the heavydipper front and teeth.

Other and further objects will appear as the description proceeds.

Broadly, my invention comprises a dipper wherein the door forms approximately an angle of 45 degrees with'the back, the front being accordingly shortened, and the other parts modified proportionately. The use of the short front is made possible by the short shank teeth covered by my Patent No. 1,274,533, issued August 6, 1918. By the use of the invention disclosed in that patent I am able to reduce the length of the front to which the teeth are secured to not over 36 inches. The door in the present invention is hinged to the back as usual, and when either in the high or low position, upon being unlatched swings open due to the pressure of the load, leaving a clear opening for the discharge.

I have illustrated a preferred embodiment of m invention in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side view of the dipper;

Figure 2 is a rear view of the dipper; and

Figure 3 is a somewhat diagrammatic view illustratin the use of the di per.

As shown in igures 1 and 2, t e dipper comprises the sides 4, back 5, front 6 and may door 7 the latter being hinged to the back at 8. he door is retalned shut b 9 engaging the latch .lreeper 10. he dipper is hung by the trunnions 12 from thebail 11 and is attached to the di per stick 13 by the arms 14 and links 15. s is best shown in Figure 1, the dipper front 1s adapted to receive the short teeth of my prior patent above referred to. 0

As shown in Figure 3, the dlpper 1s carried'by the dipper stick 13 which is assoclated with the boom 16 carried by the shovel car 17. A car upon the lower or pit floor level has been shown at 18 and a car upon the u per or bank level has been shown at 19. Iii dippers of this capacity the banks be as high as forty feet and the dipper may be raised fifteen feet higher in order to clear a car upon the bank and 'to properly discharge therein. When'the dipper is on thelower level the position of the dipper is changed through a considerable angle, as shown. 0

The dipper as shown in relat1on to the car upon the upper level is discharged by w1thdrawal of the latch from engagement w1th the latch keeper, the door then swinging downward under the pressure of the load and fully clearing its openin in the dipper. The front of the dipper is su stantlally vertical and the back'is slightl curved so that all the material is rea ily discharged. When in the lower position the door is substantially horizontal and the front and rear upon very stee angles so that the material discharges wit out difficulty.

It is to be understood that the shovel car revolves and that therefore the dipper may be brought above cars upon the p1t floor located a distance away from the shovel car pivot e ual to that shown in the drawings in relation to the lower level. The cars have both been shown in nearly the same vertical plane in Figure 3 for the sake of clearness.

In the use of a dipper of this character material may be readily and easily discharged the latch proximately at any level within the capacity and the reachof the dipper stick and boom.

I claim:

1. In a shovel dipper, a back, a front approximately parallel with the upper portion of the back and rigidly connected by the sides to the back, the lower end of the front being materially above the lower end gf tllxle back, and a door joining the front and 2. In a shovel dipper, aback, a front rigidly connected by the sides to the back and of materially less length than the back, and a door making an acute angle with the back and an obtuse angle with the front.

3. In a shovel dipper, a fixed front and back, and a door connecting the front and back and making an angle of approximately one hundred and thirty-five degrees with the plane of the front.

4. In a shovel dipper, a back, a front 'fixerly associated with the back approximately parallel with the upper portion of the back, the lower end of the front being materially above the lower end of the back, and a door joining the front and back and making an angle of approximately one hundred and thirty-five degrees with the place ,of the front.

5. In a shovel dipper, a front of relatively short length carrymg short teeth, a back of greater length having its upper portion apparallel to the front and its lower portion curved toward the plane of the front, and a door hingedly connected to the back and adapted to be latched into engagement with the front.

6. In a shovel dipper, a back and front fixedly associated together, the lower end of the front bein materially above the lower end of the bac and a door hingedly connected adjacent the back and adapted to be latched to the front.

Signed at Duluth, Minnesota, this 21st day of December, 1920.

ALEXANDER GOW. 

